HOW TO DECLUTTER YOUR MIND: CREATE FREE SPACE FOR GOOD VIBES AND POSITIVE THINKING

Cluttering your mind with thoughts and worries causes depression, insomnia, loose focus. Worrying about things/issues that don’t matter and very little gets done. There was a time when my mind was cluttered with thoughts, worrying about the unknown. This caused too much anxiety and I started loosing sleeping because I started thinking and kept a mental-to-do-list and later on depression set in. The following helped me to declutter my mind and achieve a free space in my mind for good vibes and positive thinking:

Mind mapping

It’s a way of capturing your thoughts and translating them into visual form. It is a way of connecting information to a central subject. It is like a tree but in a radical structure. Mind mapping helps you to achieve any thinking from planning your career, writing a blog post, learning a new language, starting a business project, or even building better habits. I often use mind mapping especially when I want to write a blog post and put them in a graphical form and while writing my post I hardly get stucked.

Physical decluttering

When I think clean and organized space, I think clear mind. I use this method of clearing out old clothes, cleaning, taking away things that have not been used in a while. When I declined my physical space, I discover that I also declutter my mind. Physical declutter signals to the mind that there is always something to be done which is mentally exhausting.

Digital decluttering

A lot of us are guilty of cluttering our devices with unread messages, emails, apps that we hardly open. To declutter your devices, unsubscribe from some website mailing list you have no use for, delete read and unwanted/unimportant messages, delete apps that has not been opened in a month, delete movies that has been watch. Organise important mails, documents, folders, pictures or documents etc that you keep on your device.

Prioritize your agenda

First, have a list of every thing you need and want, list of what you want to get one, list of any kind of activities (visiting the saloon, thinking of what to eat – I save myself the trouble, I have a food timetable I stick to judiciously except I crave something different, starting a business etc). I plan every day activities a day before or even for a week. Accept you can’t do it all and prioritize most important and make sure that your brain is devoted to the things on your list. Take you to-do-list and cross off half the things on it, just pick a few things to get done and focus on.

Avoid procrastination

Clutter is highly associated with procrastination. Depressed people tend to be great procrastinators. Procrastination means putting off for a later time what “should” be done now. The “should” may come from without, as with the teenager who dawdles over homework, or from within, as with me accomplishing all my daily activities. When it comes from without, it’s easy to see the rebelliousness that procrastination expresses. When it comes from within, it’s hard to see immediately what purpose procrastination serves—but it may serve many. Mental clutter works the same way; if you have a set of nagging chores, just making a list will help you focus on the present. The list will contain the nagging. Every time we are distracted, we lose efficiency. You can reduce your procrastination greatly by eliminating distracting cues.

Own a jouranl

Write down things on your mind on paper and get them off your mind. Write down your task and ideas and avoid keeping your head filled with everything you need to do and remember. Journalling helps you explore some different areas of your life that you didn’t think about. This exploration allows you to find something on your mind that you didn’t realise were there that needs to be eliminated or pursued. There are a lot of reasons to own a journal as stated in my previous post, own a journal and write down your thoughts as your morning routine to imbibe.

Sleep

Find a sleeping pattern that works for you. Avoid stressing the brain by lack of sleep. I recommend 5 hours of sleep. Sometimes we aren’t getting enough sleep or our sleeping pattern aren’t ideal for us and this can allow thoughts and worry to creep in and build up.

Own a mood board

Mood board is done by adding imagery, text, textile sample or anything else that contributes to your goals. Your mood board will be your everyday visualization tool to help focus the mind and channel your dreams into goals. Write down sections that represents key elements in your life (eg. well-being, relationship, work etc). Find imagery of goals and dreams that represent the elements and start placing your imagery to the right elements. Place your board somewhere you can see it all the time. If you start to feel your mind becoming cluttered, take some time out to reflect back on your goals.

Eliminate negative thinking

Let go! like I always say, I wouldn’t go to bed with a grudge. I keep people that hurt me out of my life – more like deleting them from my memory. My goals are more important than some of the things people come up with to talk about. I try not think about what they’ve done, I just move on.

Address issues but do not go to bed with a grudge. Sometimes it makes a huge difference to unload our troubles on another human being (a significant other, a close family member). Unload your thoughts to them, listen to them, it’s just talk but it gives you mental sanity.

Let go of worrying about something, angry about somebody, frustrated, harbouring a grudge. These are natural emotions and thoughts and none of them are really necessary. If you can let go of them, more difficult than it sounds but it’s worth the effort.

Find a job/ learn a skill/ be industrious

Create a table with 3 columns: company name, job type, and 2-3 sentences of why you are interested in and put out a job application. Learn a skill like catering, tailoring, website designing, makeup artistry etc. Write a list of all your skills, you will find surprising what your skills are – it’s just not natural to go about listings your skills. An idle man mind allows negative thoughts to creep in and clutter your mind. So therefore work on that hobby you’ve been trying to pick up.

As we end the first quarter of the year, create free space for positive vibes and positive thinking, declutter your mind from things that have caused congestion in your inner world, that gets in the way of thinking clearly and to focus on what really matters.

I hope this post helps someone to snap out of depression and repurpose your life.

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